Dwight Howard says he’s not officially recruiting free agents to the Houston Rockets, but a little flattery can go a long way in the process.
Howard said “it would be great” if the Knicks star forward ended up in Houston, and he’s “always been a Melo fan.”
“I haven’t spoken with Melo personally. I know this is a time for him when he has to really just focus on what’s going to be best for him. And I really believe that in this point in Melo’s career, he just wants to win. He’s done everything – we both have that kind of same mentality to where all the individual accolades, we’ve got them. We’ve got a gold medal, he has been in tops in scoring for a while, but those are all individual things. I think at this point he just wants to win, so it would be great to have him here because I know what his focus would be. It’s up to him, where he’s at in his career. But I want people on my team who are all about winning. That’s my focus.
“I don’t know what (Anthony) is going to do, but he wants to win. So he’s going to be looking for a place to go where he can win. He’s made enough money. He’s done everything. I think he just wants to win right now. That’s his only goal. I’ve always been a Melo fan. One thing he said in an interview a long time ago, I think my first or second year in the league, I remember him saying that if he could play with one guy in the league he would play with Dwight Howard, so you never know. You never know what could happen. Right now, I don’t know, but for Melo’s sake I just hope he goes somewhere where he feels like he has a chance to win and be successful for the next four or five years of his career.”
Howard reiterated that he’s unlikely to call any of the free agents, because he found out when going through it that “talking to a lot of people can really mess you up.”